An Obsession with All Things Handmade and Home-Cooked

A Cookie in Every Oven

If ever there was an ideal time to bake cookies, it would be now. At this very moment, cookie swaps are happening across the nation, and gifts of cookie platters and cookie baskets are being piled high. Rainbows of doughs are rolling out on kitchen counters, a world of flavored batters are being dropped onto baking sheets, and scores of every shape a cookie cutter can create are cooling on wire racks. Just imagine what it would look like if we could take a peek at the combined efforts of all those holiday bakers, hard at work. The scent of sugar rising into the brisk air and cookbook pages encrusted in flour, it just wouldn’t be Chanukah or Christmas without a full menu of cookies planned for hungry friends and family to devour.

As much as I may crave the classics, the desire to create something new and exciting always take the reins when assembling ingredients, and no two cookie trays ever end up alike. Simple, straight-forward bakery-style chocolate chip cookies are easily my most requested variety, a rare recipe that I do actually follow without variation… Most of the time.

Using the holidays as my license to experiment, I wanted to give the basic idea a bit of a savory, salty twist, to balance out the sweeter items sure to follow. An unexpected hint of herbaceous rosemary adds an unexpected but entirely welcome change of pace, further enhanced by the natural nuttiness of crunchy toasted pecans. Inspired by the addictive party snack of spiced rosemary nuts, I couldn’t help but keep the theme going and tossing in a generous dose of spice here as well. Lending a bright kick just as the taste of chocolate and pecans begin to fade, it’s the element that makes you go back for just one more bite, trying to pinpoint what that enchanting flavor was.

It’s certainly not your grandma’s or your mom’s chocolate chip cookie, but that’s probably a good thing, too. With so many options already available around this time of year, why not take the opportunity to try something a bit different?

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, blend together the melted margarine, both sugars, maple syrup, and vanilla until smooth and fully combined.

Sift the flour into a separate bowl, and add in all of the spices, rosemary, baking soda, and salt. Lightly toss both the pecan pieces and chocolate chips in, to coat with the flour.

Add the dry goods into the stand mixer in two additions, being careful not to overwork the dough but mix it just enough to bring everything together, without any pockets of flour lurking at the bottom. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl between additions so that everything gets incorporated.

Scoop out dough with a medium-sized cookie scoop, or two large spoons in about 3 – 4 tablespoon portions. Give the cookies plenty of space on your prepared baking sheets, leaving at least and inch between blobs. I usually bake only 9 per sheet, to ensure that none of them spread and collide. Flatten the raw cookie dough out lightly with the palm of your hand, so that they’re nice and round, and about 1/2 inch in thickness.

Bake for 12 – 16 minutes, watching closely to make sure that they are just barely golden brown around the edges when you pull the from the oven. They should still look fairly under-baked in the center, to ensure a soft and chewy texture.

Let cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, and then move them off to a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to a week, if they last that long.

47 thoughts on “A Cookie in Every Oven”

“no two cookie trays ever end up alike” so true and may I even accentuate it more by saying that no two cookies ever end up alike which is what I like in them. Each one of them look so old-fashioned, personable and handmade, making them a great gift around this time of the year as you rightfully say.

Christmas Eve is all about cookies for me…oh, and company of course, to eat the cookies :) I use the same three-tier cookie stand my mom used on Christmas Eve. It’s about time I started making the cookies now actually.

yumm yumm.. i love the spicy twist in these cookies.. and yes, none of my 2 trays also come out the same! gotta bake up more cookies and biscottis today! i think this combination will work ver well even in the biscottis!

Oh la la, I love this innovation of chocolate chip cookies. I agree that for a cookie swap, this would be a great one to bring because of its uniqueness. FoodGawker has me wanting to bake different kinds of cookies everyday. Not good for my body!

these sounds delicious, can’t wait to try them! this is the second rosemary recipe i have discovered today. did you know that rosemary is one of the top 19 foods that help the body to naturally combat radiation poisoning? three cheers for this wonderful medicine!!!

I just made these cookies and OMG! They are the most delish cookies I have made to date. Hannah, you are an amazing and inventive baker. I love your cookbooks and I love your blogs. I used pecans and fresh rosemary from my garden.

I have been a cookie baking machine lately and thought I was all sweet-ed out. Until I saw this little savory hint in these chocolate chips. Now I’m back on the bandwagon and all is right in the world.

Strangely enough I’ve never been a real cookie maker. I bake and I remember baking cookies as a kid but somehow it stopped there. I’ve seen so many pretty ones lately that I’m very tempted to start baking cookies too.

It was falling in love with the rosemary-tinted Union Square Cafe nuts recipe years ago that kickstarted my obsession with using “savoury” herbs in sweet recipes. Hannah, darling, who could ever want plain choc chip cookies when you’re creating these wonders? Only silly people, that’s who.

What a cool, sophisticated spice combo. I’m back in Canada for the holidays so I’m going to use your recipe to do a comparison between the non-dairy margarine available in France and here. You’ve launched a holiday project!

That is one absolutely, gorgeous cookie. I see a lot of pretty desserts in my line of work, but that one is just so perfect! It’s like the archetypal chunky cookie. But with rosemary. Which makes it even better. Well played. ;)

I love the spiced rosemary nuts and think it’s genius to make a cookie with the same ingredients especially with the chocolate it must be amazing! These are definitely going on my gifts for friends list and I might just have to steal a few for myself!!